Headquartered TIME Hotels has walked away with the Best CSR Initiative accolade at the inaugural Leaders in Hospitality Awards 2016 hosted by Hotel News ME.

The win marks the latest addition to its collection of ‘green’ awards, as the group is recognised once again for its commitment to environmental sustainability and innovative operations.

The annual awards, which took place at the St. Regis Dubai on 19 April, were attended by hundreds of industry figures with 19 categories covering all aspects of the hospitality industry. TIME outshone the competition to bag the highly contested award, beating nominees Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group and Khalidiya Palace Rayhaan By Rotana.

TIME Hotels is the first hospitality chain in the Middle East to launch a carbon-offsetting programme with 368 tonnes of carbon emissions offset over 12 months from April 2014 to March 2015.

As part of its environmental campaign strategy, the chain has also been certified across all its properties by internationally-recognised body, Green Globe, as a sustainability leader in the Middle East, and was also named a 2015 recipient of the prestigious Dubai Chamber’s CSR Label Award; the only hospitality company to receive such an acknowledgement.

“Since its inception, TIME Hotels has had a top down commitment to CSR and sustainability issues. Over the years we have created and launched a range of activities designed to give back to and support communities at a local, and now global level,” said Mohamed Awadalla, CEO, TIME Hotels. “Winning this award is once again vindication of our passion for putting CSR initiatives into the heart of everything we do and demonstrating to our hospitality peers that this is a commitment that needs to be taken seriously across the entire industry, in order ensure that what we do today has a positive impact on the world, not just tomorrow but for future generations.”

Other high profile TIME initiatives include Slow Food, a commitment to sourcing produce and ingredients within a 3,000-kilometre radius of Dubai and an Urban Garden. There’s also the newly launched digital platform, Tomorrow’s World (www.tomorrowsworld.ae), which contains a wealth of information about various activities and initiatives designed to enhance wellbeing in the workplace, community and environment. People can even use the portal to donate to special projects or volunteer their time to worthy causes.

Extending its outreach programme beyond the UAE, for the first time, TIME Hotels has also partnered with Etihad Airways on a charity initiative to support the development of three schools for underprivileged children in the remote areas of Kakamega County in western Kenya. The Likuyani primary school, nursery and special needs boarding schools, which have a student capacity of 1,700, were handed over earlier this year after a 12-month programme of building repairs and improvement work. TIME raised an impressive AED10,000 in cash donations for the cause through visitor donations in just three months.

“CSR covers many things, from community support to charity and environmentally sustainable operations. The judges were impressed by the results achieved by TIME Hotels and how these will positively impact the local environment. To beat such stiff competition shows how highly regarded TIME Hotels is across the industry,” commented Sophia Soltani of BNC Publishing, organiser of the awards.